The Feminisation of Clerical Work in Britain 1870-1914"

The feminisation of work in the global economy remains an important subject of debate, but what are the origins of processes of feminisation of work in developed economies?This book investigates the relationship between the discourse of domesticity and the feminisation of clerical work in Britain in the 1870 to 1914 period. Using historical sources it shows how clerical work became defined as work for women through the operation and use of a discourse that created women as different from and inferior to, men. The book also shows the relationship between economic development, and in particular, the development of monopoly capitalism, the growth of clerical work, and the increasing importance of women as a cheap supply of workers for the office. The feminisation of work in the global economy in the twenty-first century indicates that women continue to be peripheralised, marginalised and exploited. Arguments used to define what is work for women, the gendered discourse of work, remain remarkably persistent through the passage of time.